So should we thank the undercover federal agent working in Grand Junction who posed online as a non-existent mother of non-existent underaged girls to solicit illegal sexual activity? As a result of this agent’s ingenious sting, we the taxpayers now get to host a Brazilian citizen — the sting subject who traveled from Rio de Janeiro — for the next 12 years of a U.S. prison sentence, after which we will also pay the cost of his deportation hearings, as well as a free flight home. Somehow, this doesn’t seem like very smart law enforcement.

Peter N. Ehrlich, Denver

This letter was published in the Sept. 13 edition.

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Sting operations, such as the Grand Junction operation, sure look like entrapment exercises to me, but the courts say otherwise, so what do I know?
Isn’t there enough real sexual predatory behavior against youth that the police could intercept, without having to create fake predatory behavior?
To borrow from Mr. Ehrlich, a non-existent mother of a non-existent underage girl was used to entrap — oops, I mean sting — a foreign national. I bet the prison is very-existent, though.

Phil

How do you catch them otherwise?

primafacie

The same way other criminals are caught. Complaint, investigation, arrest, prosecution.

Robtf777

The Letter Writer makes a point…….but only to the extent that he apparently wishes that the non-existent mom and the non-existent underage girls REALLY DID EXIST……and that a crime really did occur…….that would have traumatized the victims of this Very Real Sexual Pervert for the rest of their lives??????

Given the choice of identifying, arresting, prosecuting, and IMPRISONING a Very Real Sexual Pervert…… who would go so far as to fly to the US to commit his crimes…….of (1) having Real Victims who were Really Preyed Upon (2) having “non-existent” victims who will not have any physical, emotional, psychological scars……for years, decades, or the rest of their lives………most people will gladly choose #2.

The Criminal was and is very, very real.

His crimes that he wanted to commit and that he flew all the way to the US to commit…..are very, very real.

The only thing that was not “real” was his INTENDED TARGETS……his INTENDED VICTIMS…….and that is actually a good thing.

peterpi

There is already enough sexual predatory behavior against youth, without the police having to manufacture it.
Instead of capturing Brazilians with too much money and not enough brains, why don’t the Grand Junction, CO police — and the Lakewood, CO police, which also has an ongoing sexual youth crimes sting operation — concentrate on catching the local perverts and thugs who are already attacking children?

mrfxx

I’m going to go out on limb and bet that this Brazilian “with too much money and not enough brains” actually approached another woman on the Internet with his creepy proposal – and she both rejected it (if only by no longer responding to his emails and/or chats) and reported him, which set the sting in motion – hardly “manufacturing” predatory behavior.

Sadly, there are people in this country (as in every other country) who will sell their children for the right price. Would you be so blase about this if this pedophile had come here and raped a child (with the mother’s consent) after setting it up on the Internet? By the way – I’m also guessing that the Brazilian government (whether or not it got a “head’s up” about the investigation) was not upset about the case, because I don’t recall seeing any expressed outrage from them about it.

John

I guess if this gets one more dirt bag off the streets and away from my daughters then Im all for it. I guess I do not see what they did wrong.

irisman

This guy has to be really stupid. I think it would be a lot easier to find an underage girl in Brazil.

Guidelines: The Post welcomes letters up to 150 words on topics of general interest. Letters must include full name, home address, day and evening phone numbers, and may be edited for length, grammar and accuracy.